Track your seed oil intake at 500+ restaurant chains — free on the App Store →
Oil vs Oil · Beef Tallow vs Soybean Oil

Beef Tallow vs Soybean Oil

Beef Tallow wins on seed oil PUFA: about 3% of its fat versus roughly 58% for Soybean Oil, around 19x less per spoonful.

Per tablespoon that is an estimated 0.4g of PUFA against 7.9g. Values from USDA oil composition data, method on the methodology page.

Beef Tallow Soybean Oil
PUFA share of fat~3%~58%
Est. PUFA per tablespoon~0.4g~7.9g
Typeanimal fatseed oil
Seed oil?noyes

Beef Tallow

Rendered beef fat, the classic American fry medium before the 1990s. Mostly saturated and monounsaturated fat, very stable at fryer heat.

A short list of chains discloses tallow fryers. See Tallow Watch.

Soybean Oil

The default American restaurant oil at roughly 58% PUFA. Cheapest per gallon and what the big distributors stock by default.

The distributor standard; assume it when nothing is disclosed. See chains using soybean oil.

More matchups

Or work out any amount with the PUFA calculator.

Track your seed oil intake — get the free app
500+ chains. Every item graded. Get Seed Oil Tracker